But Latu still believed he could play football. He told the Seawolves his passion still was in trying to get back on the gridiron.
Without any direction from Washington – Latu said he was never placed in physical therapy following his surgery, leading him to rehab on his own – he began devising pass rushing drills to run, alone, on the Huskies’ practice field. He studied football’s top pass rushers – Aaron Donald, T.J. Watt, J.J. Watt, Maxx Crosby among them – and worked tirelessly on his craft despite a clear path to ever playing again. Washington’s defensive line coach, Ikaika Malloe – who Latu considers a father figure – encouraged him to do whatever he needed to try to play football again.
Latu kept believing he could play, and he kept working to be ready for when – not if – the opportunity were to arise.
“I just had to take it upon myself where I was taking little tools, little techniques (and) little drills from a pass rush coach here,” Latu said. “I would see T.J. Watt or J.J. Watt do this in a game so I’m going to take that and mix it into my drill. It was a bunch of just really falling in love with the sport, falling in love with my craft and just learning as much as I can during that down period because I did tell myself I was going to be at a stage like this.”
Then Latu’s mother, Kerry, got him a visit with Dr. Ronald Watkins, a neck specialist in California. Watkins gave Latu the green light he had hoped for: He was cleared to play football again.
A few serendipitous connections then led Latu to his next stop. UCLA’s football program referred out to Watkins, and Malloe was just hired by the Bruins. The combination of a clean bill of health and a coach to vouch for Latu as a player led him to transfer to UCLA in January 2022.
Latu rewarded UCLA’s faith in him with more sacks than any other Power 5 player had in the 2022 and 2023 seasons. All the self-motivated work he put in with no one else…
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